June 2008

I don’t want to force my politics on anyone, but when I found out that John McCain pandered to voters by saying he condemned any remarks that were “anti-anything” I lost rather a lot of respect for him, so I got off the fence went for Obama, which is lucky for me, because there are loads more Obama tees out there than McCain ones. Although McCain’s supporters probably don’t do t-shirts, they probably knit wool sweaters for him (I’m saying he’s old, that seems to get laughs).

I can’t work out where “Barack’n the free world” was first used… by which I of course mean I googled it and didn’t immediately find it, then got bored and ate some strawberries (’tis the season!). I guess it doesn’t really matter where the phrase came from (a Neil Young song, btw), if you wear it people know who is going to be getting your vote in November, and it doing that in a good looking way is just the cherry on top of the political sundae.

Quality is impressive. The stock tee is American Apparel, which most of you guys will have an experience of, I can’t tell you what this particular one feels like because whilst I have lost a few pounds (okay, about 50) over the past 18 months, I can’t quite squeeze myself into a girls small tee yet… or presumably ever. The print is really soft, its so soft I actually had to double check that it wasn’t flock print, so I think its fair to say that KosherHam have got printing down pretty well.

Its not all that often that you see gradient on a tee. Granted, the actual design isn’t all that exciting (though it is very wearable, I can see it working well in an outfit), but that gradient is damned attractive.

Do you remember Yackfou? They’re a bunch of Berliners who produce clothes that have a touch of awesome about them, and now you don’t just have to buy those clothes online, you can buy them in their shop (yes, a real shop, with windows and stuff).Well, not quite yet, the shop, located on the Boxhagener Platz, Friedrichshain, in the centre of Berlin, doesn’t actually open until July 5th, and when it does, Berliners, you’re gonna want to head down. On the opening day, everything in the shop is going to have 50% off, which certainly isn’t a price cut to be sniffed at (whatever that means). They’ll also be selling prototype and sample pieces in the shop, which is nice.

I don’t know what their angle is, or if there is meant to be any angle at all, but Dance Party Massacre have created a site that simply asks the question:

What are you afraid of?

And you simply provide the answer. The responses so far range from funny & silly, to more thoughtful and serious comments, both kinds make for an interesting read, and you can leave your message anonymously if you so desire.

* UPDATE: Alex from DPM got in touch to let me know all about the campaign, find out on their MySpace blog, it’s actually pretty damn cool, and its not just online either, they’ve been putting stickers around cities all over the US asking people what they’re afraid of.

Just a quick note one this overcast and cloudy weekend that I’ve completed the latest updates to the tee blog list and it has now swollen like my belly after a visit to a hinese buffet and has reached a rather collossal 149 sites. I’ve also made it clearer which of the blogs are dead and which are extensions of t-shirt companies by putting [Dead] and/or [Corporate] next to their name.

Earlier this week when I posted those queue pics of crazed JC fans and attached what I thought was the Summer releases…. I was wrong, the latest round of tees are now available though, I promise!Johnny Cupcakes

Rejoice, American t-shirt designers, because the mighty Strawberry have ordained that you can now submit your designs to their competitions and hopefully win, which is nice, since their prizes are in Euros rather than dollars, and Euros do look ever so pretty (so much colour!).

Unfortunately, they still haven’t given the North American t-shirt buying public a kiss on each cheek, and those of you on the other side of the Atlantic still have to make your laFraise purchases through a special Spreadshirt US store front which lags behind the European version by quite a long way, although it has been restocked recently with a few ‘new’ designs.

Ha! Its true, there are an awful lot of bikes in Amsterdam, and an awful lot of tourists that can’t get their heads around not walking in bike lanes. Unusually for a flickr finds post, I can actually point you towards where you can buy this tee (sacre bleu!), although Parkarma have gone on holiday, so if you order one then it won’t be shipped until shortly after August 1st when I get back from their hols.

If you want to learn how to screen print from anyone, a company that makes really cool tees is a pretty good choice. I’ve never attempted screen printing, but I’d imagine that if I were going to give it a go then I’d need a fair amount of instruction, and my SpideyAndy-sense is telling me that Print Liberation team have the skills to make a pretty looking book.Costiness=$25 Link (Amazon Link)

A company in Thailand needed to get the word out about how great their detergent was, so they did what everyone else does and sent a package with a sampler of the product to households across the country. They did a little something extra though, they wrapped the package in a white t-shirt. As expected, the Thai postal service got the tees good and dirty, and what do you need to clean a t-shirt… detergent!

I might have mentioned in the past that I’m half-Cumbrian and half-Geordie (I’m like a human version of Hadrian’s Wall!), and whilst I live in Cumbria, I do make fairly frequent trips to the Republic of Geordania, so I was pretty excited to hear that next time I make a trip to Newcastle it will be to see more than just family and football.

Electrik Sheep is a damned cool Newcastle-based store that also sells its wares online. I could try and describe it myself but to be entirely frank they’ve done too good of a job on the blurb:

Electrik Sheep is an independent graphic / clothing store and gallery in Newcastle, UK, selling hard to find brands from all over the world. We specialize in tees, hoodies, and accessories that we believe in and find inspiring, as well as producing a couple of our own brands, R.Hero and Prefab. We also hold exhibitions and give away loads of free beer.

Atticus (the brand founded by Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge of Blink 182, though Hoppus doesn’t have anything to do with it now) and Ebtm (a British clothing site) have launched a fashion blog that I imagine British emo and scene kids might like.

Continuing the music theme, Ian Watkins, who is the singer/frontman of the Lostprophets, a band who are big in the UK (I’ve seen ‘em twice), has moved on from designing the bands album covers and merch, and released his own line of t-shirts with the brand name of Made In Hell, which are actually pretty good, and to prove that he’s keeping it indie and not selling out to ‘the man’ the store is powered by Big Cartel. If you’re wondering how I’m shoehorning this piece of news into a post about blogs… ummm… here’s an interview he did with Punktastic.

Tolky Monkys, the Spanish company who make character-based tee designs, have released their summer line (everyone’s at it at the moment, aren’t they?), and if I may say, its pretty damned cool. Click here for a Flickr set of the new designs.

I guess that these tees might be a turn off for some of you simply because of the use of a logo, but I kinda like them. They have the look of a band tee, if Monstar were a band of course, and at least they’ve made the effort to try something different with the design of their name in each of the designs, so I think that if it were a crime to put your own name on a tee Monstar wouldn’t even get community service.

I didn’t realise that we were even in the middle of summer, but I don’t give a damn what you call it as long as it means there’s a sale on:

Hi Andy

Just thought id let you know about our Mid-Year Sale which starts 11am CST tomorrow
Sale lasts for 5 days from June 25-30, All shirt prices reduced.

Thanks

Glenn

Here’s what I like about Glenn, the guy is polite, and he puts the time zone into his e-mail, just so that everyone knows where they stand. All the tees are now $13.95 (*a couple are actually $15.95, sorry, still a good price though), which is pretty damn good for American Apparel tees, especially when they’ve got the artwork of Mr. Glenn Jones all over them (note, tees not actually all overs).

We all like something for nothing, and whilst I’m afraid Allmightys aren’t giving away free t-shirts (you can get free shipping on four or more tees though) they are giving away their artwork for free in the form of some thoroughly sublime wallpapers.I’m not entirely positive about this, but I think that all of their t-shirt designs are available as a high quality 2560×1600 pixel wallpaper (or most of them at the very least), and the latest series from the Mech Tech Competition are also available in iPhone friendly sizes.Check out the rest of wallpapers here.

Kat found an absolute beast of a tee a couple of weeks back that really caught my eye. I don’t actually have any glow in the dark tees in my collection, but I’m always fascinated by them, and I especially like it when glow ink is used in a way that is actually important to the design, rather than just used for the sake of making you glow.Costiness=Â£15 Tee Link